The question of how we sense the environment around us has fascinated humans for centuries. The first attempts at a theoretical understanding of the senses were discovered in the writings of early Greek thinkers in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. However, the gap between our theories and our understanding of how our senses work is continuing to shrink. This year, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Dr. David Julius and Dr. Ardem Patapoutian, two scientists who independently discovered mechanisms of how we sense temperature and touch…
Tag: Nobel Prize
Cancer cells and their invisibility cloak
I remember being mind blown when I first read about how Harry Potter was able to disappear into alleys by wearing his invisibility cloak. The idea that someone could hide in plain sight always fascinated me as a child. What if I said that this happens right in the human body, where certain cells are able to use an invisibility cloak to camouflage themselves? You read it right: cancer cells have this extraordinary ability to hide in plain sight in the body. But, scientists are working on ways to get cancer cells to come out of hiding and to target them for destruction…